Enhanced Ionic Accessibility of Flexible MXene Electrodes Produced by Natural Sedimentation

Abstract

MXene nanosheets have been used for preparing highly flexible integrated electrodes due to their two-dimensional (2D) morphology, flexibility, high conductivity, and abundant functional groups. However, restacking of 2D nanosheets inhibits the ion transport in MXene electrodes, limiting their thickness, rate performance, and energy storage capacity. Here, we employed a natural sedimentation method instead of the conventional vacuum-assisted filtration to prepare flexible Ti3C2Tx MXene films with enlarged interlayer spacing, which facilitates the access of the lithium ions to the interlayers and thus leads to a greatly enhanced electrochemical performance. The naturally sedimented flexible film shows a double lithium storage capacity compared to the conventional vacuum-filtered MXene film, along with improved rate performance and excellent cycle stability.